Well, obviously I haven’t taken the time to write in a while. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had much to say! Anyway, we’ve been busy here at the Kirks household so I’ll catch you up on all the exciting news.

Food – My last entry was about my new eating program and I’m still going strong. I’ve gotten tired of people asking how my diet is going and how long I plan to do it because the attitude I’m trying to adopt is one for life. Yes, not eating carbs and sugar is hard at first, but it gets so much easier and I feel so much better. I’ve lost weight and my body fat is down more than it has been since high school. While I’d love to lose about 10 more pounds, I’d be thrilled if I stayed right where I am and just gained more muscle. The funny thing about not eating sugar and carbs is that I don’t crave them any more. Yesterday, Steve was on the road for work and was stopping to get a snack before heading home. He had about a two hour drive so I told him to get some raw almonds and water. Naturally he didn’t listen to me and instead got a candy bar. Poor guy paid for that! He said he felt terrible! He had no energy when he got home and went upstairs to lay down before dinner. After dinner (salmon burgers and salad) he said he felt so much better. Lesson learned!

Studio – I’ve been slowly working on more steel pieces for my show in October. Saturday, the neighbors were having a garage sale and I found a butcher block for the studio. Butcher blocks are great because they are heavy and things can be bolted to them. Since this one wasn’t completely solid, I got a deal and my shear is now bolted to it. I did some intense cleaning and rearranging and things are so much better. My constant goal is to make the studio a welcome place for me to be creative even when I don’t feel like it. Before Steve got home last night I spent some time playing around with a new earring design. Hope to get it done this week.

Home – Steve and I have been itching to do some furniture moving. Unfortunately, our house and furniture seem to work the best where they are right now. We’d love more flexibility in the living room, but the furniture and rugs have to be strategically placed to cover the bad spots in the floor. Plus, we’re having a small problem with Littles urinating on the area rug in the bar area. We’ve treated all the spots and moved a litter box there and things seem to be working. Bottom line is that she’s getting old and we don’t think she wants to walk all the way downstairs to use the box. The goal is to get the box in the bar slowly moved over to the half bath so it won’t be in the middle of the floor.

The Bar – And speaking of the bar, it’s a dead zone. Three walls have either bookshelves or the bar itself so it’s impossible to add furniture. My first thought when we moved in was that I’d have a table and four chairs in it to create a game/social area. Nope, that seemed too crowded. It’s a small space, but the storage is so valuable that we don’t want to take out any of the shelves or drawers, but we can’t put a couch on front of them. For now it’s just floor space behind the living room.

Game Room – Steve sold his xBox. All of it, games and everything. I was shocked. He said he had come to the realization that he didn’t enjoy it anymore and wanted to do something more productive with his time. He scored a major trade deal at Game Stop and used his credit to buy an iPad. Yes, he drank the iPad Kool-Aid and loves it! Now I can use his Kindle for reading and we can both use the iPad to look up stuff while we’re downstairs. It’s a nice, handy little gadget. I think I’ll really enjoy it when we take our next trip because Steve has loaded the iPad versions of several of my magazines on it. Plus, I can watch videos on a big screen rather than my phone. How fun! Now we’re trying to figure out what to do with the Game Room. Steve wants to create an office area for himself since I’ve taken over our official office. I told him that was great by me, but neither one of us knows what to do with it. For now, we’re cleaning and rearranging everything and will figure something out soon I’m sure. I think he wants to make it an area where he can set up all his computer equipment and work on certifications. Sounds good to me as long as it doesn’t become a drop zone for excess crap.